As of June 12, 2017
Summary
As developing-world farming communities increasingly feel the impact of climate change, local initiatives are springing up that focus on sequestering atmospheric carbon in soil through regenerative organic agriculture. The Ocoa Carbon Farming Project, based in the southwest mountains of the Dominican Republic, is developing an innovative model that links global climate action to urgent quality-of-life issues. In Ocoa, as elsewhere, rural residents are experiencing an accelerating health, economic, and ecological crisis, resulting from the collapse of the predominant, but increasingly dysfunctional, “Green Revolution” chemical farming model. Regenerative organic agriculture could eliminate toxic chemicals and restore ecological balance, as well as address climate change, but requires the development of new farming skills, along with the creation of a substantial regional market for organic produce. But what makes the Ocoa project truly unique in its climate science component. A laboratory will be constructed in the pilot village of Los Martinez to analyze the carbon sequestered in the Project’s soils, providing a rigorous quantitative measure of the project’s sequestration effectiveness for both participants and the world at large.
Project Components:
About CAREL
CAREL is a Dominican non-profit corporation started in the mid-1990’s as a collaborative effort between US appropriate technology activists and Dominican rural communities seeking innovative, workable development solutions. CAREL quickly became a national leader in participatory, community based and owned micro-hydroelectric systems, directly leading to the construction of some 47 (and counting) off-grid electric systems that now serve over 15,000 rural people. CAREL also offers expertise in rural wireless Internet access and operates a training center in its base village of El Limon. CAREL serves rural communities around the Dominican Republic, particularly in the Ocoa region. The communities are generally semi-isolated and are economically very marginal.
CAREL is a small, informal, and agile organization, and works in tight coordination with community leadership in each individual project. The communities themselves make project decisions through their established processes.
CAREL has worked extensively with the UNDP Small Grants Program, and received funding from the InterAmerican Foundation and Organization of American States, among other institutions. In the Ocoa Carbon Farming Project we are currently working with the Farmers’ Association of Los Martinez, the Ocoa School District, and the Gaia Dominicana Permaculture Network.
Contact:
Jon Katz
jon@carel.red
Dominican Cell: 809-490-9001
US Cell: 510-500-5289